


I Remember Everything

by NoodleThePirate



Category: Fullmetal Alchemist - All Media Types, Fullmetal Alchemist: Brotherhood & Manga
Genre: But not really because it's a fix-it fic, But some people will still die, Canon-Typical Violence, Character Death, Ed has a potty mouth, Emotional Hurt/Comfort, Explicit Language, F/M, Fluff and Angst, Implied/Referenced Alcohol Abuse/Alcoholism, M/M, Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder - PTSD, Series Spoilers, Time Travel, Time Travel Fix-It
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-09-14
Updated: 2020-09-14
Packaged: 2021-03-07 02:48:37
Rating: Mature
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,419
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/26459716
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/NoodleThePirate/pseuds/NoodleThePirate
Summary: “ARRRRRRGGGGGHHHHHHHHH!!! Dammit! This can’t be happening! It can’t be!!! He’s gone ,what have I done!?! Somebody. Somebody help me! Please, please. This wrong!! This isn’t what we wanted!!! Please. Alphonse no! You won’t take him too. Give him back!!! He’s my brother. Take my leg, take my arm, take my heart, take ANYTHING YOU CAN HAVE IT!! JUST GIVE HIM BACK, HE’S MY BROTHER!!” Hands slamming into the blood.The world shifted, blue transmutation light replacing the red.“FULLMETAL, DON’T YOU DARE!!”“Hey, don’t forget me bastard, ya hear??”Somewhere in Central, Roy Mustang woke up with a start, drenched in sweat. “What was THAT?!?!”
Relationships: Edward Elric/Roy Mustang
Comments: 1
Kudos: 46





	I Remember Everything

**Author's Note:**

> **Disclaimer:** I don't own FMA. That's the pleasure of Arakawa Hiromu.
> 
>  **Author's Note**  
>  I got this idea in my head and it wouldn't go away. Basically, what would happen if Al had accepted his body back when given the chance on the Promised Day instead of opting to continue to fight in the armor? I think it would all go sideways.
> 
> The story is set in the Mangahood verse. I do pull in some things from the 2003 anime when I want (even though they are all short stories or side stories in the mangaverse), but all of the lore, the time line, etc. is from the manga and _Brotherhood_. The only thing I am changing is I am making Ed a couple years older. He's going to be 16 at the beginning of the Fic, which means he's 18 on the Promised Day. I like Ed/Roy, but I can't write underage. So he gets a slight age bump. SorryNotSorry!
> 
> The chapter count right now is an estimate. I don't actually know how many chapters this will be... The first chapter is also the shortest. It's more of a prologue than anything, just an intro to the story. The other chapters will be longer.
> 
> I have the first three chapter written and the middle three written. Now just to get the connections together and the end...
> 
>  _ **Beneath here be spoilers for the fic, but if you want to know what you are getting into...**_  
>  So, in my head, if Al took his body back then everyone would die. All the souls would be sucked out, Father would win, and Amestris would basically be SOL. Al made the right choice in the manga. But what does that mean for Ed? Well, he would try to fix it. He is able to escape Father's lair and come up with a solution to time travel. But, with Ed's AMAZING luck, it doesn't quite go as planned and his memories of the future end up shoved in Mustang's head. Craziness ensues. There will be some OOC for him since he literally has Ed's thoughts and memories floating around in his noggin' and that is going to affect how he behaves, but not much. Just flashes of it. This isn't a funny fic, however. There will be some funny moments, because I do have a sense of humor, but it isn't crack. Mustang really does have to come to grips with having ALL o Ed's memories, good and bad, in his head.

_“K. This is it Al!”  
“Ed, something doesn’t feel right!”  
“Al?!? AAAAALLLLLLL!! It can’t be. A rebound?”  
“BROTHER! Help! ED! BROTHER! HELP!”  
“AAAAAAAAAAAAAALLLLLLLLLLLL!!!!!!!!!”  
Reaching out to his brother. Everything hurt, but that wasn’t important. Al was disappearing. Al was going away. Al was being disintegrated. He was going away. Reaching out, reaching out as far as he could go. Almost there! Then Al’s hand dissolved away, and the world slammed out of focus.  
Everything went white. Talking. So much talking. I don’t understand what is happening.  
The world swam. There was blood, so much blood. Blood everywhere. Blood pouring out, pouring out of the leg. My leg. My leg was gone. Blood. Pooling on the ground, bleeding so much. And Alphonse wasn’t there. Where was Al? WHERE WAS AL?!?!  
There, ahead. Something in the circle. Something we created. Mother?!? MOM!?!? Please, please, please. But it wasn’t. It couldn’t be. It was dying, it was coughing up blood, it wasn’t Mom, it couldn't be. But it was there. It was a nightmare. No Mom, no Alphonse, no family. Everyone gone. Gone and left him just like that poor excuse of a father!  
“ARRRRRRGGGGGHHHHHHHHH!!! Dammit! This can’t be happening! It can’t be!!! He’s gone ,what have I done!?! Somebody. Somebody help me! Please, please. This wrong!! This isn’t what we wanted!!! Please. Alphonse no! You won’t take him too. Give him back!!! He’s my brother. Take my leg, take my arm, take my heart, take ANYTHING YOU CAN HAVE IT!! JUST GIVE HIM BACK, HE’S MY BROTHER!!” Hands slamming into the blood._

_The world shifted, blue transmutation light replacing the red._  
“EDWARD, DON’T YOU DARE!!” That sounded like his own voice...  
_“Hey, don’t forget me bastard, ya hear??” ___

__Roy Mustang woke up with a start, drenched in sweat. “What was THAT?!?!” Lying bolt upright in bed, he wracked his brain to try and figure out what had triggered the nightmare. What was more, what triggered a nightmare that wasn’t his own. Gate knew he had enough demons of his own. Between Ishbal and his time in the military, as well as his parents death and childhood trauma, he had plenty of his own torturous dreams. Why was he dreaming of Edward’s and Alphonse’s? He obviously knew about the boys, knew how they lost their body and limbs, at least in the abstract sense. He had seen the aftermath, he had seen that basement. The basement and the blood splatter that was just in his dreams. He had seen them directly afterwards and knew what had happened to them. But he had never given it too much thought. ‘Well, let’s be honest.’ His brain supplied. ‘You didn’t WANT to think too hard about it, because it would make it that much harder to send those two out on missions, wouldn’t be able to effectively use them, if you could envision what they went through.’ So why was it now, years after they had joined his team, years after he had grown accustomed to the hollow armor that housed one of the kindest, but low-key scariest, brilliant mind he had ever met and the short, frankly genius, acerbic, mercurial young alchemist? The two prodigies that were on his team. Why did his mind have to, now, show him exactly how human they were, exactly how young they were?_ _

__His day had started off normal enough. He woke up to his alarm clock, groggy and a little hungover from a night at the bar the night before. He wasn’t as young as he once was, his body didn’t just bounce back like before. He could still tuck a few away on a work night and get up and function the next day, but it was getting more and more difficult. But so were the assignments, so was the paperwork, so was, well, everything. So a little over indulgence every now and then wouldn’t be remiss. Right?_ _

__He stumbled down the stairs of his townhouse and started the coffee pot. He would get another cup of military grade gasoline when he went into work, but first thing in the morning required a gentler touch. A coffee that wouldn’t melt the lining off his stomach. Once started, he wandered back upstairs to take a quick shower and put on a clean uniform. He always found it helpful to look more put together on days that he would rather spend in bed, trick his brain into accepting he was awake and functioning. When he felt a bit more like himself instead of a dried out piece of leather, a used wrapper flapping in the wind, other metaphors that his sleep addled brain couldn’t come up with but were bound to be witty once he had his first cup of coffee, he grabbed his travel mug, a piece of toast, and was out the door. Eastern Command was a short jaunt down the road, just enough time to finish his toast and still have a little bit of coffee left in the cup. He had picked his home because it was close to headquarters and he didn’t need to drive or request a ride unless it was raining. Also it was an opportunity for him to wake up a bit more and gather his thoughts, getting ready for the day ahead._ _

__A quick, brisk walk on a rather dreary, overcast April morning and he was at his desk, ready for a day of work. Well, ready for a day of cleaning his windows, making paper airplanes, and then desperately finishing all of his work within two hours. His usual routine._ _

__Fullmetal had come in. It was always a whirlwind when he was in town. The kid had finished his latest assignment and was there to report and to get his next._ _

__Seriously, the only thing that was at all different was the command from the Fuhrer for an exhibition of a mock battle between Roy and Edward. Flame versus Fullmetal. Whispers and talks had been circulating around Eastern Headquarters, around both of them, about who was the better alchemist. It seems to have started in his own office, with his men debating their skills back and forth. Roy’s cold calculation and distance destruction versus Edward’s close-contact martial arts and battle alchemy. From there, it had spread to the rest of the building. Roy had brushed it off as idle chit chat among the lower ranks. But it had steadily grown into something everyone was talking about. He tried to put the kibosh on it, snuff it out before it became an actual thing. But it was slowly taking on a life of its own._ _

__Roy tried to find a long assignment that would make sure Edward would be out of town to make sure it couldn’t happen. He tried to get the upper brass and the Fuhrer against it. He even thought about faking sick, but knew that it would only show weakness on his part. But plan seemed to hold any water, and the Fuhrer had set a date in late May, a little over a month away, for the exhibition to take place in Central. It would double as both Ed and Roy’s annual assessment for their State Alchemist licenses. It was couched under the terms of improving morale amongst the troops, showing the battle prowess of two of the most notorious State Alchemists in the military. Betting pools were already started, and he knew that his own office was at the forefront of it._ _

__Roy was worried, though. He didn’t want to hurt Fullmetal. The kid was a fighter, that much was obvious, and could hold his own against most. But Roy’s flames were relentless. They could kill. Hell, he still had the nightmares to prove that they DID kill. And the last thing he wanted on his conscience, the last thing he could handle on his conscience, was hurting Fullmetal in any way. But orders were orders. He still needed to inform Fullmetal about the duel, but he was pretty sure the kid would be all for it._ _

__Maybe that was why Roy had that dream. Maybe his mind was trying to humanize those boys, trying to rebel against the idea of fighting Fullmetal. It was doing the exact opposite of helping, since keeping them at arm's length would make this whole thing easier. But since when did his mind help him? With that puzzle finally figured out, Roy rolled over and tried to fall back asleep, hoping that was the end of it._ _


End file.
